Windows Phone 8.1 gesture keyboard shown on video

The more we're seeing of Windows Phone 8.1, the more we're getting excited. It looks as though Microsoft is pushing hard to add most of the most-wantedfeatures to the platform. Even though this is technically an incremental update, it is looking extremely feature-rich; and, the newest feature to be caught on camera is a gesture-style keyboard.

Like iOS, Windows Phone users can't change the default keyboard for the system, so any added text-input options have to come directly from Microsoft. The stock keyboard works very well, but Windows Phone doesn't yet have universal dictation or swipe input, but it looks like both may be coming with WP 8.1. Universal dictation is expected to be part of the Cortana voice command expansion, and new rumors have been pointing to a gesture keyboard in the works as well.

The video below isn't the best quality, but it does show the new keyboard in an early version of WP 8.1 on a Nokia Lumia 920. The gesture input is what you would expect, but there do seem to be a couple added bonuses. For example, if you swipe the word "happy" there will be a recommendation for a smiley emoticon. That seems pretty cool, although if you've already swiped "happy", it seems a bit silly to change that to an emoticon. But, maybe we're not the right demographic for that use since we aren't teenage girls.

The latest info says that the Windows Phone 8.1 developer preview should be released in April with the full update hitting consumers over the summer.

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I haven't missed Swype since switching to WP, since it was most useful on the much smaller screens of my Nokia 701, C7 Astound, and 5230 Nuron. I won't mind its inclusion but I doubt I'll have much need for it.

Same here, I haven't used swipe since my N8 and 808 PureView and I don't miss it on Windows Phone. I used it a little on my Android devices but even then, I don't miss it or just have to have it. I don't miss it on iOS.

I will give credit though, it makes one handed typing and typing without paying full attention much easier as we can remember the general area of the keys and the swipe software takes care of the rest.

Swipe style keyboards have their place and I am sure I will use it from time to time, I just hope that it doesn't slow down the keyboard when I am not swiping.

Ever since switching to a swipe keyboard its hard to go back to any other ecosystem that doesn't have it. A simple but much needed update. They should simply allow changing the default keyboard to get swiftkey on board but that just might be wishful thinking.

I don't get it, why does nobody see in the beginning of the video that you can sort apps by group now and give the group a name? I love to get the swype feature but i'm more excited about the first thing you see in this video lol :)

I don't need to flash ROMs if the phone runs great out of the box same way I don't need third party launchers if the stock one is feature rich.

I'm one that likes to change the look of my home screen from time to time and from experience, live tiles can get pretty boring with time.

I understand that Microsoft wants uniformity, it's great actually but they can still have that while still giving users tons of options. For example, they can incorporate multiple home screen support and still make live tiles the default or primary one. They should give options to make the live tiles transparent, semi transparent or opaque or simply provide transparency slider. Home screen wallpaper support, actionable tiles like widgets, list or grid app drawer that can be categorized, theme support (I want themes that can change my app icons, I won't want to be staring at that icon all tho time ), feature rich file browser that can handle most of the popular file formats, a capable video player like MX Player, capable audio player like Poweramp, ability to transfer any of my files without restriction, WiFi share (WiFi direct) support.

If they can bring these features while still keeping the UI's slickness, I'll jump right back in.

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